Filling-spring for mattresses and the like.



A. 0. THOMPSON. FILLING SPRING FOR MATTRESSES AND THE LIKE. APBLIOATION FILED MAR. 18. 1911.

Patented May '7, 1912.

INVENTOR.

WITNESSES 6W M A TTORNE Y.

COLUMIIA PLANOGRAPH C0,, WASHINGTON. n. C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALAN C. THOMPSON, OF TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA.

FILLING-SPRING- FOR MATTRESSES AND THE LIKE.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALAN C. THOMPSON, of the city of Toronto, in the Province of Ontario, Canada, have invented certain new and usefulimprovements in Filling- Springs for Mattresses and the Like, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to coil springs which are arranged in pockets formed in strips of textile material to form a mattress filling as described in U. S. Letters Patent No. 685,160, dated October 22nd, 1901, and Canadian Letters Patent No. 68,628 dated September 6, i900.

Having been engaged in the manufacture of mattresses under the Marshall patents, I have found that considerable trouble is caused owing to the difficulty of so protecting the cut-off ends of the coil springs that they will not cut or rub either the ends or sides of the pockets. If it were not for the question of expense, the problem of protecting the ends would be simple enough, but owing to the large number of springs employed in each mattress, it is essential that the means of protection employed shall cost nothing extra in labor and shall, if possible, use no extra material over and above the wire of which the springs are made. This means in effect that the protection must be obtained by the shaping of the springs themselves, that the special shaping of the springs must be done by machinery, that to avoid handling and consequentexpensive waste of time the special shaping must be done by the machine employed to coil the springs, and that the special work placed on the coiler must not materially decrease the rate of output of the coiler.

I have succeeded in devising a spring possessing the conflicting properties of ease of production by machinery and inability to wear its pocket with its out ends, by the expedient of reversing the direction of inclination of the end coils and reducing their cliameter so that the out ends occupy a position sufliciently far within the ends and away from the side of an imaginary cylinder bounding the spring to be out of contact with a containing pocket whether the spring is extended or compressed.

Reference is had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 18, 1911.

Patented May 7, 1912.

Serial No. 615,299.

right angles to Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a plan view of a spring. Fig. 4: is a view similar to Fig.

2 showing the spring compressed.

In the drawings like letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures.

A is a portion of a tubular strip of fabric sewn along the lines B to form a series of pockets C. Each pocket contains a spring D, usually a non-tapered helical spring. The end coils E, it will be seen, are of less diameter than the remaining coils of the spring, and are wound in the reverse direction so that the out ends F occupy a position well away from either the ends or side walls of the pockets C. This position is maintained no matter how far the spring may be compressed, as shown in Fig. 4. Consequently the spring answers the first requirement of safety to the pocket at the expense only of slightly more wire than would otherwise be necessary and without demanding any appreciable increase of time in manufaoture.

What I claim as my invention is 1. In a filling for mattresses a pocket of textile farbirc containing a non-tapered helical spring and having its end coils inclined in the reverse direction to the main coils and reduced in diameter whereby the cut ends of the spring are maintained out of contact with the pocket whether the spring be compressed or extended.

2. In a filling for mattresses a pocket of textile fabric containing a non-tapered helical spring and having its end coils inclined in the reverse direction to the main coils and changed in curve whereby the cut ends of the spring are maintained out of cont-act with the pocket whether the spring be compressed or extended.

Toronto this 20th day of February, 1911.

ALAN O. THOMPSON.

E. P. HALL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of latents, Washington, I). C. 

